During
your life time you will face a range of totally different problems, but medical
research has shown that in many respects the body responds in the stereotyped
manner outlined above, undergoing identical biochemical changes which are
essentially designed to cope with any type of increased demand upon the human
machinery. In other words, although stress-producing factors (technically
called stressors) are different, they all elicit essentially the same
biological stress response.
Short
term arousal due to stress can be life saving, but long term arousal can be
damaging to health as the body’s strength is continually drained at a higher
rate than normal and no time to recoup energy is given. Long term depression
and feelings of being unable to cope, which may result from prolonged stress,
produce slightly different changes and it is thought that they may
have even greater potential to be damaging.
The
distinction between stressor and stress was perhaps the first important step in
the scientific analysis of this most common biological phenomenon that we all
know only too well from personal experience. Dr.Hans Selye, an internationally
acknowledged authority on understanding stress, defines stress as a ‘non-specific
response of the body to any demand made on it.
In his
book, 'Stress without Distress' he explains that each demand made upon your body
is, in a sense, unique – that is, specific. When cold, you shiver to produce
more heat and when you sweat because the evaporation of perspiration has a
cooling effect. When you eat too much sugar and your blood sugar level rises
above normal, you excrete some of it and burn up the rest so that the blood
sugar returns to normal. Similarly, any drugs or hormones you take have their
own specific effects and side effects on your system.
No
matter what kind of derangement is produced, all these stress all these
stressors have one thing in common they increase the demand for readjustment.
Therefore, although the cause and consequent reaction may be specific, the
demand itself is a non-specific, requiring adaption to a problem, irrespective
of what that problem may be. The non-specific demand for activity is the
essence of stress.
Studies
show that many maladies have no specific single cause but are the result of
constellation of factors, such as inherited or environmental factors, among
which non-specific stress often plays a decisive role. We have to consider that
such ailments as peptic ulcers, high blood pressure, nervous breakdown, and so
on, may not be primarily due to such causes as diet, genetics, occupational
hazards. They may simply be the products of ongoing non-specific stress that
results from attempting to endure more than we can.
It now
seems that ‘working hard’ or ‘getting the job done’ are not the prime cause of
heart attacks. The culprit is, in fact the negative thoughts we carry: anger, frustration,
tiredness, depression and so on.
Thus,
instead of undergoing complicated drug therapies or surgical operations, we can
often help ourselves better by establishing whether or not the decisive cause
of our illness is stress, which may stem from our relationship with a member of
our family or non-employer, or it may merely be due to our own over-emphasis on
being right every time.
Anything
which upsets the balance of mind or body can cause stress. For the purpose of
definition, let us say that ‘stress’ is ‘imbalance’ as the stress response
forces the body’s functioning into an excited, imbalanced state.
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